Media Coverage

The survey of doctors from a Midwestern health system found that oncologists were far less likely than primary care physicians to offer advice on health promotion strategies, such as weight loss and smoking cessation, researchers reported in the journal Cancer. With oncologists reticent to offer advice on lifestyle changes, the onus may fall upon patients to bring the topic up and to find ways on their own to address changes, said study coauthor Bonnie Spring, a professor of preventive medicine, psychiatry, psychology and public health and director of the Institute for Public Health and Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Northwestern University researchers found that spaceflight has a consistent effect on gut bacteria. After comparing data from mice in space and studies on Earth using a tool they developed called STARMAPS, they found something surprising. The cause of changes in gut bacteria during spaceflight isn’t radiation.

Sexually transmitted infections are on the rise across the nation. To combat the increase in STIs locally, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Department of Public of Health are launching a multiyear initiative, starting with a task force aimed at a reducing new syphilis cases.

Below, the full list of task force members.[…]

Brian Mustanski, Ph.D.; Co-Director, Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR)

Each of the focus groups, which were held at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, consisted of four to 12 people who came from similar backgrounds. Because most of the participants, 74%, had received care at other clinics in the past, the researchers were able to compare patient experiences at a clinic with black dermatologists to clinics where they were seen by doctors of other races. Some patients had experienced clinic visits in which the doctor seemed uncomfortable touching their skin. In fact, some had the experience of doctors avoiding skin contact altogether, examining hair with the end of a pencil or not at all, for example.

“They all belong to a sub-group of the population that is privileged. And privileged sub-groups tend to live longer and better than the average,” Olshansky told Politico, categorizing them as “super-agers,” or individuals in their 70s and 80s who have the mental capabilities of people decades younger. Another neuroscientist who studies aging, Northwestern University’s Emily Rogalski, explained to Politico that scientifically, it’s hard to “determine someone’s cognitive abilities simply by knowing someone’s chronological age.”

The doorway was too narrow for the patient on the stretcher. So the high-powered Northwestern neurosurgeon did the next best thing. He knelt on the ground and tried to pull the patient through the window of the shuttered Algerian resort, which served as a makeshift hospital staffed by Northwestern medical school-affiliated doctors during World War II. During the war, more than 50 Northwestern doctors and dentists, and more than 100 nurses from hospitals across Chicago, formed the 12th General Hospital unit, which set up hospitals and cared for servicemen in Algeria and Italy.

PALCA: The analysis is sent electronically to a recording device. The patch can measure the salts in sweat, but Baryia says it can also measure things like glucose, although it’s not clear whether sweat glucose is as informative as blood glucose. The Berkeley team is just one of several working on sweat patches. John Rogers is at Northwestern University.

JOHN ROGERS: We do things without electronics.

PALCA: Rogers says the patch he’s developing with the sports drink company Gatorade uses chemical sensors to measure the sweat.

A community is described as having low access to healthy foods if 10% or more of its residents are low income and live more than a half-mile from the nearest large grocery store. “Better access to grocery stores and fresh fruits and vegetables helps kids be healthier overall, learn better in school and avoid future health issues, such as obesity,” said Dr. Matt Davis, senior vice president and chief of community health transformation at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, which developed survey with the Chicago Department of Public Health.

New study links eggs to increased cholesterol and a risk of heart disease

Researchers at Northwestern University analyzed 30,000 U.S. adults over three decades and found that eating just three to four eggs per week was tied to increased cholesterol and a 6 percent higher risk of heart disease.

“A hospital might rate best on one rating system and worst on another,” Dr. Karl Bilimoria, the study’s lead author and director of Northwestern Medicine’s Surgical Outcomes & Quality Improvement Center, said in a statement. “We wanted to provide information on how to interpret these contradictory ratings so people can better select the best hospital for their needs.” Bilimoria and his team assigned grades to four popular hospital rating systems based on factors like transparency and the potential for misclassifying hospital performance. U.S. News & World Report got a B, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Star Ratings got a C, Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade got a C-minus and Healthgrades got a D-plus.